I went for a ride last night on the yellow bike with the rack and panniers attached. It went terribly. First problem was the panniers were set too far forward so my heels hit them as I pedaled. Quick fix, no problem. I knew i’d probably have to adjust them. Two miles later I made a right turn and there was a loud clunking sound in my spokes. I stopped to take a look, turns out the rear of the pannier has too much movement and on a leaning turn it moved into the spokes. No harm done, but I’ll have to adjust the attachment to find a middle ground between hitting my heels and being too far back.
About half a mile later I start hearing this rubbing sound and pedaling is very difficult. It sort of felt like the brakes were rubbing on the rim, or the tire blew out. I stop to take a look and am glad this all happened within the first couple miles so it’d be a shorter walk back home. I checked the tire, not flat. But the rear wheel still wouldn’t spin. the brakes looked fine. Turns out the rack had slid down the seat stays and was rubbing on the tire. Wonderful. I pulled on it a bit to get it back to where it was and start riding again. I thought about just heading back home, but I was almost at the steep bit to cross the bridge over the river and wanted to see how difficult the climb would be with the extra weight and on a fixed gear. I made it to the top without too much trouble, but on the way back down I had to stop and lift the rack off the tire again.
I think I had to stop 2 more times on the short ride home to fix it. Not a great start, and the rack only had about ⅓ the weight it’ll have during the trip. When I got home i tightened up the ratchet things holding the rack on the frame. The seat stays are tapered so I’m not sure making them tighter will actually help. I guess we’ll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment